Islamic Fiqh > Endowments (waqf) and property > Ghasb: usurpation
Taking another's property by force: the prohibition of ghasb, its legal effects (restitution, value, rental value) and the fate of usurped assets destroyed or sown.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Ghasb, usurpation, is forbidden by the Quran: « consume not your wealth among yourselves by falsehood, save in trade by mutual consent » (Surah an-Nisa, 29), « and do not deliver it to judges to consume a portion of people's wealth in sin » (Surah al-Baqara, 188), « the thief, male and female, cut off their hands » (Surah al-Ma'ida, 38), theft being a form of usurpation. The Sunna threatens: « Whoever takes unjustly a span of land will be made to wear it around his neck on the Day of Resurrection, down to the seven earths » (al-Bukhari 2320, 3026, Muslim 1610, from Sa'id ibn Zayd), and at the farewell pilgrimage: « your persons, your wealth and your honours are sacred » (al-Bukhari 1652, Muslim 1679). Consensus is reported by al-Mawardi and al-Imrani: whoever deems it lawful denies a truth of the religion.
The jurists distinguish the usurper, who takes by force, from the thief who hides, the snatcher who seizes openly then flees, the taker by strength without a weapon, and the brigand: the brigand falls under the muharib punishments, not the usurper, who falls under restitution, guarantee and disciplinary correction. Malikis discipline even the discerning child who usurps, to the measure the judge sees.
The usurped property is returned as it is. If it perished: the schools agree on the guarantee; if it belongs to like-kind wealth (measured, weighed, counted), a like is returned; otherwise, its value. If it diminished: Hanafis make the usurper bear the deficit of the kind; Malikis give the owner the choice between the value at usurpation and the defective item with the indemnity of the defect; Shafiites and Hanbalis impose returning the item with the indemnity of the defect. Natural offshoots follow the property while attached; once severed, they are guaranteed.
Sale, lease, gift, loan of the usurped property: all are void, the usurper disposing of what is not his; the owner takes his property back from whoever holds it, and the buyer turns against the usurper. Using the property during usurpation is itself a guaranteed damage.
The rule common to all schools: another's wealth is touched only by consent; whoever usurped must restore the identical or its equivalent, add the indemnity of the damage, and the authority may join a disciplinary correction.
Return the asset as it is; if destroyed, its value; and the rental value for the whole duration per the majority (see the ghasb page).
Settle amicably (selling the strip, compensation) or demolish the encroaching part: the harm is repaired, it does not prescribe.
Repentance earns Allah's pardon, but people's rights remain: returning and repairing is true return's condition.